Abstract

The feeding habits of the Great Spotted Woodpecker (Picoides major) were surveyed by field observations and trace checking from 2005 to 2007, in Wulate Qianqi County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China, during which the woodpecker performed fourteen types of foraging techniques. Pecking and hammering were most common in winter; gleaning and probing were most common at times of high food availability at the trunk and tree branches during the breeding season and in summer. The woodpecker gleans arthropods and insect larvae in the breeding season and summer, seeds and nuts mainly in the winter and pokes holes for sap-sucking in winter. The main diet consisted of arthropods and plant seeds. The diet was significantly different between seasons. The Great Spotted Woodpecker primarily consumes defoliators and the food on tree trunks from March to October. The contribution of wood borers to the diet was higher in winter, lower in the breeding season and summer. The proportion of the food on ground was small in the breeding season and high in the summer and winter.